NIST scientist joins polymer science faculty

03/31/2009

Dr. Matthew Becker will join The University of Akron College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering as an associate professor of polymer science. Becker, who will take his new post on April 6, comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Md., where he served as a staff scientist and project leader of the institute’s Polymer Division for the past four years.

“Dr. Becker's expertise in tissue engineering and organic chemistry will significantly complement the biopolymer research currently underway at the UA College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering,” says Dr. Stephen Cheng, dean of the UA College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, “and furthermore, will enhance the biomolecular materials research at UA and at the BioInnovation Institute in Akron.”

Becker’s most recently funded research, “Integrated Technologies for Polymeric Biomaterials: RESBIO,” for which he was a co-investigator and area leader, received $5.5 million from the National Institutes of Health — National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

Among his other accomplishments, Becker has published more than 40 refereed papers and was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at NIST from 2003-05. Previously, Becker was an NIH chemistry-biology interface training fellow at Washington University in St. Louis.